Holding case for portable electronic devices

ABSTRACT

The presently disclosed holding case allows a user to hold a portable electronic device with a single finger, allowing the user to keep the device in a convenient and handy position for use. The device comprises a flat, flexible strap which fits along the backing to a device or device case. The strap adjustably slides into two slots placed on opposing sides of the case. On the inside of the device casing or backing, the strap slides along a raised track. One end of the strap further comprises horizontal ridges across its tail portion, which partially lock into matching grooves in the case. This permits the strap to be temporarily locked in an open position for reception of any finger and to securely hold a device in place. When not in use, a slight touch causes the strap to retract back to its default flat position.

FIELD OF INVENTION

The present invention relates to the fields of portable electronicdevices and device cases. More specifically, the invention relates to aholding mechanism to be used with portable electronic devices and devicecases.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Portable electronic devices, such as cellular telephones, personaldigital assistants (PDAs), mini-laptops and mP3 players have existed inour popular culture and business culture for many years now. Thetechnology behind the devices continues to advance at an exponentialrate, yet important features of the devices themselves, primarily thebody structure, coverings, and cases, have been widely overlooked from afunctional standpoint. Regardless of the internal capabilities of adevice, every one of them must be picked up and handled at some pointduring each and every usage. This is usually true even when employingBluetooth or headsets. With the growing number of applications andmulti-tasking capabilities on many of the popular devices, handsets andportable electronic devices must be handled and held for longer lengthsof time.

This presents the need for a convenient method for a device to be heldwithout involving a handset user's entire hand. Currently, some deviceshave handles, which requires an entire hand, but some phones and mp3players don't even have a place to hold them. For example, most smartphones on the market today take the shape of a rectangular brick, inorder to fit a larger display and virtual keypad on the front face.These devices are extremely bulky and cumbersome, especially whenholding for extended lengths of time or trying to remove from a case orpocket.

Some devices have tried to solve the problem by incorporating a slimmermid portion of the casing or backing within the actual shape of thedevice. Others have added grips to the sides of the device. Some includelanyards that can be worn around the neck or wrist. Even more haveincluded cases that can be clipped to a belt. Yet all of these modelsoverlook the central problem of keeping the device in a functionalposition while not commandeering use of the entire hand.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The presently disclosed holding case allows a user to hold a portableelectronic device with a single finger, allowing the user to keep thedevice in a convenient and handy position for use. The device comprisesa flat, flexible strap, which fits along the backing to a device ordevice case. The strap adjustably slides into two slots placed onopposing sides of the case. On the underside of the device casing orbacking, the strap slides along a raised track. One end of the strapfurther comprises horizontal ridges across its tail portion, which clickinto either matching grooves or conversely shaped ridges in the casetrack. This permits the strap to be temporarily locked to variousdegrees in an open position for reception of any finger and securelyhold a device in place. When not in use, a slight touch causes the strapto retract back to its default flat position. The mechanism providesenough tension around a finger so that the device stays in place, forexample when pressing keys, but enough flexibility to rotate the case.

These and other objectives of the claimed invention will no doubt becomeobvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading thefollowing detailed description of the preferred embodiment that isillustrated in the various figures and drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a top view of the holding case in the preferredembodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 illustrates a bottom view of the holding case in the preferredembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 illustrates a side view of the holding case in the preferredembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4A illustrates a detailed close-up side view of the holding casestrap going under a raised track.

FIG. 4B illustrates a detailed close-up bottom view of the holding casestrap temporarily interconnected with the raised track.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

In the following description of the various embodiments, reference ismade to the accompanying drawings, which form a part hereof, and inwhich is shown by way of illustration, various embodiments in which theinvention may be practiced. It is to be understood that otherembodiments may still be utilized and structural and functionalmodifications may be made without departing from the scope and spirit ofthe present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, the preferred embodiment of the top of holding case10 is shown. Holding case 10 comprises rectangular elastic strap 20which is inserted into two slots in case 10 to form finger grippingportion 22 on the top of case 10. Gripping portion 22 is made to bepulled upward in order to fit around a finger, digit, elongate articleor the like. In one embodiment, gripping portion 22 may be coated oretched to produce a higher friction area of strap 20 or tacky. surface.Additionally, gripping portion 22 may be thicker or padded because itdoes not need to fit through the slots in case 10. Strap 20 is sizedwidthwise to exactly fit through any slots so the motion is neitherconstrained nor uncontrolled. It may also have rounded, smoothed orshaved edges in order to achieve this function and increase the ease ofsliding. In this view, tail portion 26 can best be viewed to furthercomprise horizontal ridges 28 which form an adjustment mechanism ofholding case 10. Ridges 28 are made to fit and temporarily lock intogrooves 29 (not shown) located on the underside or bottom of case 10while adjusting strap 20. Alternatively, the location of ridges 28 andgrooves 29 can be reversed, for example so that grooves 29 are on tailportion 26 and ridges 28 are on the underside of case 10. Ridges 28 maytake various shapes beyond the classic horizontal bar shown, such ascircular bumps or other shapes known in the art of attachment devices.In the preferred embodiment, there will be one ridge 28 on the strap andtwo grooves 29 on the case, but various numbers and combinations ofthese elements can be envisioned without impeding functionality. Thelength of tail portion 26 and the adjustment mechanism can be as long asdesired, possibly even longer than the electronic device itself, inorder to accommodate any size finger, digit or elongate article. On theopposite side of strap 20, leading end 24 is shown on the underside ofcase 10 being capped by plug 15. In the preferred embodiment, leadingend 24 is fixedly secured to case 10, but in other embodiments it couldalso be free to provide extra slack. Ideally, when the length of leadingend 24 is very close to zero, plug 15, which has a T-shape, can pivotjust under the slot without being pulled through. Other shapes and sizesfor plug 15 known in the art, such as a spherical ball, may also beutilized without taking away from the present invention.

Now referring to FIG. 2, the preferred embodiment of the bottom orunderside of holding case 10 is shown. Here, the underside of strap 20can best be seen with plug 15, leading end 24, gripping portion 22, tailportion 26 and track 30 along a straight line. Finger gripping portion22 is now shown on the reverse side of case 10. From this view, raisedtrack 30 can be seen extending beyond tail portion 26. In alternateembodiments, track 30 may be completely covered by tail portion 26. Inthe preferred embodiment of the present disclosure, the edges of tailportion 26 are made and shaped to fit around the sides of raised track30. Track 30 may optionally include slits or rails along the side inorder to further keep strap 20 in place. Preferably, strap 20 will fitonto track 30 so that it can be taken off track 30 and pulled throughthe slots so that it may be completely removed from case 10 for thepurpose of cleaning and/or repair. This view also shows grooves 29 intrack 30, which again may take various shapes to interconnect and/ortemporarily interlock with ridges 28.

Now referring to FIG. 3, the preferred embodiment of the side of holdingcase 10 is shown. Strap 20 is shown in an elevated position withgripping portion 22 away from the top surface of case 10. Leading end 24and tail portion 26 are both inserted into slots on case 10. In thepreferred embodiment, the width of strap 20 is between ⅛ and ¼ inchesthin in order to easily fit around objects while in an elevatedposition, yet the thickness or depth of strap 20 is only between 1 and 3millimeters in order to stay flush with case 10 while in the defaultretracted position. Strap 20 is preferably made of a material that canbe flexed such as plastic, waterproof cardboard or thin aluminum alloysbut can easily be envisioned to be constructed of other materials knownin the art and suited to this particular purpose.

Now referring to FIG. 4A, a close up view of the preferred embodiment ofthe side of strap 20 is shown. Plug 15 stays down while gripping portion22 (not shown) and some of tail portion 26 is arced upward. In thisview, case 30 can best be viewed to comprise teeth 31, in place ofgrooves 29. Teeth 31 are preferably right triangles with theirhypotenuse facing the lower right of the page, toward the end of tailportion 26. This will allow any bumps, tongues or ridges 28, orconversely shaped triangles on strap 20, to pull across teeth 31 andlock so they cannot slide backward. Additionally, the right side of tailportion 26 comprises spring 40 which attaches to a notch or hook on case10. As strap 20 is pulled up and out, spring 40 uncoils adding stress tostrap 20, which cannot be released, due to teeth 31. In order tocollapse strap 20, the elevated portion can be manually pushed downwardto provide enough clearance over teeth 31, so that spring 40 pulls itback to the flat retracted default position.

Now referring to FIG. 4B, a close up view of the preferred embodiment ofthe bottom of strap. 20 is shown. This view mainly shows a differentangle of tail portion 26 fitting over case 30 and grooves 29. Plug 15,previously shown as a separate structure, can now be seen integratedwith leading end 24. Also gripping portion 22 is shown as a separatestructure because its texture and shape may vary. This view additionallyshows that the right side of tail portion 26 may optionally compriseelastic section 42 in place or in addition to spring 40, which furtherkeeps strap 20 in line and on track 30.

The present invention includes any novel feature or combination offeatures disclosed herein either explicitly or any generalizationthereof. While the invention has been described with respect to specificexamples, including presently preferred modes of carrying out theinvention, those skilled in the art will appreciate that there arenumerous variations and permutations of the above described apparatusand techniques. Thus, the spirit and scope of the invention should beconstrued broadly as set forth in the appended claims.

1. A holding case for a portable electronic device comprising: a case; athin, flat, rectangular strap woven into two slots on said case, saidstrap further comprising a leading end, a plug, a gripping portion and atail portion, said tail portion further comprising at least one ridgelocated on said tail portion; and a raised track located on theunderside of said case, said track further comprising a plurality ofgrooves for adjustably interlocking with said tail portion of saidstrap.
 2. The case of claim 1, wherein said case is an integratedbacking to a portable electronic device.
 3. The case of claim 1, whereinsaid portable electronic device is one of the group consisting of acellular telephone, a feature phone, a smartphone, a slider phone, aclamshell phone, a personal digital assistant, an electronic video game,an mp3 player, a satellite music player, a DVD player, a digital reader,a notebook laptop computer and a touchpad computer.
 4. The case of claim1, wherein said strap has a thickness of 1 millimeter to 3 millimeters.5. The case of claim 1, wherein said strap has a width of ⅛ of an inchto ¼ of an inch.
 6. The case of claim 1, wherein said strap furthercomprises rounded edges.
 7. The case of claim 1 wherein said tailportion of said strap further comprises edges that fit around the sidesof said track.
 8. The case of claim 1, wherein said track furthercomprises an inward or outward rail for securing connection to saidstrap.
 9. The case of claim 1, wherein said plug is T-shaped.
 10. Thecase of claim 1, wherein said plug is spherically shaped.
 11. The caseof claim 1, wherein said leading end has a length of less than 0.01 of amillimeter.
 12. The case of claim 1, wherein said leading end is fixedto said case.
 13. The case of claim 1, wherein said plug is fixed tosaid case.
 14. The case of claim 1, wherein said grooves protrudeoutward at approximately right triangles.
 15. The case of claim 14,wherein said ridges are oppositely shaped right triangle protrusions tosaid grooves, so that said grooves and said ridges fit snugly together.16. The case of claim 1, wherein said tail portion further comprises aspring.
 17. The case of claim 1, wherein said tail portion furthercomprises an elastic portion.
 18. The case of claim 1, wherein saidstrap is completely removable from said case.
 19. The strap of claim 1,wherein said gripping portion is etched or coated with a padded or tackysubstance.
 20. A method for using the holding case of claim 1 to hold aportable electronic device comprising the steps of: providing a userwith said case; pulling a strap from the front of said case; attachingsaid strap over a finger of said user; using said device while attachedto said finger; and pulling said case off said finger when said deviceis no longer in use, wherein said strap retracts to a flush formationwith the face of said case.